Louisville officials, residents to meet about impacts of Street Faire

A large crowd fills the streets during the Downtown Louisville Street Faire on July 12. (Mark Leffingwell / Camera file photo)

City officials and business leaders in Louisville will meet with a small group of concerned Old Town residents next week to discuss what some say are the increasingly negative impacts of the city's popular Downtown Street Faire.

Mary Ann Heaney has lived in the 1100 block of Lafarge Avenue, just west of Main Street, for 24 years.

She said in recent years, the Downtown Louisville Street Faire concert series, which began in 2002, has become more and more disruptive for residents of her historic neighborhood. The free concerts take place from 5 to 10 p.m. on Fridays over the summer, beginning June 13 this year.

"The impacts have grown almost exponentially in the last three years," said Heaney, who went before the City Council to voice her concerns last week, prompting a meeting with city leaders on the topic scheduled for Tuesday.

Heaney said she and another Old Town resident began gathering signatures last month on a petition lobbying the City Council to address Street Faire impacts including traffic, parking, noise, drunk and disorderly patrons and trespassing.

When she set out, Heaney said, she thought the primary issue was parking, but she quickly found others living near downtown were dealing with much worse on summer Fridays.

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"There were issues with really disorderly conduct and trespassing," Heaney said. "There are fights, loud noises in the alleys at night. The next morning there is a lot of trash discarded in residents' yards. If you're lucky, all you have to do is clean the trash up, but if you're not lucky you have to clean up vomit off your yard or sidewalk."

Heaney said she intends to present her petition, bearing more than 130 signatures from Old Town residents, at next week's meeting.

City Manager Malcolm Fleming will be in attendance, along with Ward 1 City Councilman Jay Keany and recently hired Louisville Police Chief David Hayes. Fleming said he has reviewed a list of proposals Heaney emailed to the City Council last week and is looking forward to a productive brainstorming session.

"Many of the things we're already doing," Fleming said of Heaney's list. "But some of the things we need to do a better job on."

Among Heaney's recommendations, which she said were written with input from petition signers, are mandates to limit alcohol consumption by patrons, issue tickets for public urination and install resident-only parking spaces.

Jim Tienken is a lawyer with a practice based on Pine Street in Old Town and president of the Louisville Downtown Business Association.

He said the Street Faire is a "magical event" that is family-oriented and has been a catalyst for the renaissance in downtown Louisville over the last decade.

He said some of the things Heaney is asking for already are commonplace — such as hiring extra police to monitor the event, requiring people serving alcohol to have special training to spot fake IDs and having strict rules about serving visibly intoxicated people.

Many of the negative behaviors some have attributed to the Street Faire are more likely the by-product of a popular downtown bar and restaurant scene than that of the concert series itself, he said.

"I think we need to address the disproportionate impact on a certain group of people," he said of Old Town residents. "We will try to address that as best we can while keeping the essence of what it's all about."

Many residents in the Old Town area praised the Street Faire.

"In my experience, I thought it was well organized and ran smoothly," said Ron Rickman, a lifelong Louisville resident who has attended the concert series a few times.

Dave Beach and his family have lived near the corner of Lafarge Avenue and Spruce Street for two years and, aside from some minor difficulties parking once in a while, have no problem with the Street Faire or its patrons.

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